An important contribution to World War II literature.
An exhaustive history examines one of the most significant battles of World War II.
The extraordinary battle in Hosingen, Luxembourg, between American and German troops remains sadly neglected, despite being one of the most significant engagements of the war, according to the author. When the 110th Infantry Regiment set up camp in the town, its purpose was largely to rest, and the unit was pleased to find Hosingen relatively unscathed by the war and hospitable. But Hitler, preparing for a massive resurgence of his battered army, set his sights on Bastogne, the way to which cut right through Hosingen. The Americans established a defensive position, and in December 1944, fought the Luftwaffe for nearly three days despite being greatly outnumbered and inadequately equipped. Hosingen was considered to be so strategically significant, Gen. Troy H. Middleton and Gen. Norman D. Cota ordered the men to “Hold at all costs!” American soldiers fought bravely against a force of 5,000 and ultimately wounded or killed 2,000. Nonetheless, on Dec. 18, the regiment, out of both ammunition and food and encircled by the enemy, had no choice but to surrender. This is the second book by Flynn (Unforgettable: The Biography of Capt. Thomas J. Flynn, 2011), and her father figures prominently in this one as well, since he was the executive officer of K Company during the defense of Hosingen. The prose is reliably limpid, and the author’s command of both historical context and tactical maneuvering is stunning. While a scrupulously researched study, the book possesses cinematic power, unfolding more like a work of fiction than an arid catalog of the past. Many of the men who surrendered suffered terribly at the hands of their captors, and the author covers this as well, providing the perspectives of eight prisoners of war. Sometimes the reader may feel crushed under the weight of so much minutiae—Flynn even provides lists of casualties by name—but the action is vividly described, making up for any information overload. The volume also includes a wealth of black-and-white photos and appendices that include newspaper articles from January 1945. This is history at its best: thoughtful, rigorous, and dramatically presented without embellishment.
An important contribution to World War II literature.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5172-6833-6
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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